Repair head for heddles



July 23, 1953 w. H. THORPE REPAIR HEAD FOR HEDDLES Filed April 6, 1950 INVENTOR, Willa/211217102776,

Azforn y Patented July 28, 1953 REPAIR HEAD FOR HEDDLES Willia'mH. Thorpe, Philadelphia, Pa., assignor to Walker Manufacturing Company,

phia, Pa.

Philadel- Application April 6, 1950, Serial N 0. 154,347

4 Claims. 1

The ,object of, the invention is toprovide improvements in heddles broadly, but more specifically in a repair head to replace the original loop end. or head of a heddle when worn and broken, -Without the necessity otherwise of replacing the entire heddle with its attendant shutdown of the loom, corresponding decrease in production and resultant loss in income.

1 Heddles, likev any other piece of a fast moving "mechanism, especially when characterized by reciprocatory motion, and even more so when that motion is substantially or fully. vertical, frequentl'y wear. through and break particularly at some pointnof the end loops or eyes, and most frequently in the case of the upper loop, due to the force of gravity during each'downward motion being added to the inherent inertia of the heddle, as its movement is suddenly arrested preparatory heddle bar and the neighboring rail.

I Heretofore'when, a heddle has broken, it has been necessary to stop'theloom, breakthe warp end, remove it from the eye of the heddle and -lay it back on the beam, then separate the warp --so that the unbroken end loop-can be removed 'either by twisting or cutting, whichact of itself loan. cause other broken ends and/or smudging -or. damaging the warp, then slipping the repair Jheddle over the heddle bars which of itself is difficult to do in the midst of a full set of threaded heddles, then re-enter the warp end through the .eye of the new replacement heddle and tie the ends together, and finally adjust the warp and start the loom, an operation for which even an expert usually requires about'five minutes.

By contrast, an'objectiof the invention is to provide what may be termed and is hereinafter referred to as a lock-on repair head, the use of which in the replacement of a broken heddle involves merely stopping the loom, breaking or cutting off with pliers or cutters the broken end :loop substantially at or but slightly above the exact bottom of the said loop, insert the abbreviatedend into the repair head and fold over "the clip and tongue thereof, thereby securing and positively locking in place the adjacent heddle end, slipping the loop of the repair head over the heddle bar or rod, and starting the loom.

A further object is to provide a repair head, that essentially comprises a bar-engageable hook portion and a depending body portion having a transversely extending shoulder, from which projects an apertured clip portion, that terminates in a freely extending narrowed tongue, said clip aperture being adapted to receive the dovetailed or slightly V-shaped portion of the end of the heddle, after the loop portion proper thereof has first been removed at the bottom of said loop, and the clip portion then being bendable tightly against said heddle end, and secured in that position by bending the tongue over the shoulder'of said body portion. 7

Still another object is to provide a repair head, that comprises a hooked portion for engagement with the usual heddle bar or rod, a body portion provided with an aperture or cutout capable of receiving the abbreviated portion of a heddle, and means to secure said heddle to said head.

With the objects thus briefly yet broadly set forth, the invention comprises further details of construction and operation, which are hereinafter fully brought out in the following description, when read in conjunction with the accomor level at which the loop' sides are preferably removed after some part of the loop breaks;

Fig. 3 shows the blank from which the improved repair head is bent; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a repair head comprising one embodiment of the invention; Fig. 5 is a side elevational view of the same; Fig. 6 is a front elevation of the same; Fig. '7 is a vertical section on the line '|I of Fig. 8; and Fig. 8. is a section substantially on the line 88 of Fig. 7.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 8, inclusive, an ordinary well known type of heddle is shown as comprising the usual shank I, having a substantially centrally positioned Warp-passing eye 2, while its opposite upper and lower ends are provided with vertically elongated loop-s 3 and 4 for the reception of the usual supporting bars 5. Incidental to the act of punching out said loops, the end portions of the initial blank are widened by swag- -ing dies or tools, that result in and leave behind them thinned areas 6, that decrease the thickness towards each other, and in surface area have a general shape that is substantially midway bethereto become divergent, dovetailed, or Wedgeshaped, as indicated at 7.

During the course of ordinary use of the heddle in weaving, the sides 8 of the upper loop in particular tend to Wear narrow and in time break,.

as hereinbefore described, and such breakage has heretofore required the removal and replacement of the entire heddle. However, the present invention merely involves the cutting ofi of the narrow sides of the afiected loop as nearly as possible at or slightly above or below the exact base of the loop, at the level indicated'by the line 8 (Figs. 1 and 2), below which a substantial por- 'tion of the divergent edges 7 are located. This divergence has been found adequate to support the major portion of the heddle by means of the repair head comprising the invention, said diverging edges in effect forming shoulders almost as positive in function as though they were in alignment and at right angles to the axis of the heddle.

Referring to Figs. 3 to 8 inclusive, one embodi- Jnent of the improved repair head is shown as when operatively positioned for the upper end of a heddle, and while it will be described as in that position, it is to be understood that it is equally adapted for use for either the upper or lower end. This repair head comprises a vertically uninterrupted side to, from the uppermost portion 'of which laterally extends a reversely directed parallel hookportion II, that terminates downwardly at i2 short of the bottom of the side [0,

to provide an intervening space adapted to receive the heddle bar 5.

The lower portion of said head comprises a laterally extending bottom portion l3, that provides an upwardly terminating horizontal shoulder 14, while from the lowermost edge or said bottom portion, when bent or folded ready for use (Figs. 4, 5 and 6), there extend a pair of spaced side sections [5 and is, connected at'their free extremities by a transversely extending section l'i,1 that together with saidbottom portion and said side sections form a rectangular aper- Commencing shape shown in Figs. 4, 5 and 6, and in this shape is preferably sold and distributed to the mills for use when needed, the shaping being done by dies .that insure exact sameness of all heads sold, and resultingly exact duplication of position and functioning of allsuch heads when securel attached to the abbreviated end of a heddle of a given width wire.

In the case of this repair head, the broken loop end of the heddle is cut on, as before mentioned, along the line 9, and the Wedge-shaped abbreviated-end portion inserted upwardly through the aperture !8 in the repair head, while said heddle is axially turned substantially 45 in either direction with respect to its normal plane of operation,

" which is the plane of the repair head. The heddle dash-and-double-dot lines 28 is then returned to its plane of normal operation and permitted to drop until its widened terminal portion 1 is restrained from further downward movement by engagement of its divergent lateral edges with the sides of said aperture I8 (Fig. 8). The side sections i5 and i6 and the transverse section ii are then bent upwardly by pliers (or .other suitable tool) into close, binding contact with the widened heddle end, and the tongue l9 similarly bent over the shoulder i4 and tightly against the rear of the bottom portion l3, thereby securing said heddle end in tight, unitary relationship with said repair head (Fig. 7). With this accomplished, the hooked end of the head may be dropped over the heddle bar, if convenient to do so; otherwise, the freely extending hook terminal is temporarily deflected upwardly substantially into the position represented by the (Fig. 7), after which said terminal is again returned to its nor- -mal lower operative position in the plane of the opposite-side II]. The heddle having been thus returned to its original position, the loom is again started and operation of the same maintained as long as desired, or until another such heddle may break, in which case it too can be provided with a repair head similar to the first and at no time disturbing the warp in the eye 2.

As an example of the approximate saving in time and increase in production, when using the new repair head over the replacement of the entire heddle as heretofore, the latter at five minutes shutdown delay on eight-pick cloth, with loom running at 184 picks per minute, amounts to 920 picks lost or 11.5 inches of cloth, whereas by the former (new) method of repair requiring about one-third the time, the loss is only 307 picks, or a gain of seven and two-thirds inches of cloths.

A further advantage resides in the fact that ordinary-repair heddles are made only in nickel 'finish, certain .wire sizes and certain eye sizes.

For example, a mill using 14/80 wire, a. eye, stainless wire, would have to use for repair a 14/80 Wire, eye, which is smaller, and nickel plate, which will rust. By contrast, withthe new .type of repair head, the same heddles are used without change in any way other than replacement of the head portion.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. The combination of a heddle having a dovetail end, with a repair head comprising a barreceiving portion, a body portion having an upwardly directed shoulder, an initially depending portion having an aperture, and a tongue initially depending from said last-mentioned portion, the shank of saidheddle extending through said aperture and the sides of said dovetail portion engaging the sides of said apertureto prevent escape of said end from said head, said depending portion being bent into parallelism with said body portion, and said tongue being bent 'reversely over said shoulder.

2. The combination of a heddle having a dovepending portion, an aperture extending through said head at the joint between'said body and depending portions, the shank of said heddle extending through said aperture and the sides of said dovetail portion cooperating with the sides of said aperture to prevent escape of'saidend :i id

E from said head, and said depending portion oeing bent into parallelism with said body portion.

3. The combination of a heddle having a dovetail end, with a repair head comprising a bar-receiving portion, and a depending portion having an aperture through which said "meddle extends, and the sides of said dovetail portion cooperating with the sides of said aperture to prevent escape of said end from said head.

4. The combination of a heddle having a dovetail end, with a repair head comprising a bar-receiving portion, and a depending portion comprising a pair of transversely spaced portions between which said heddle extends, and the sides of said dovetail portion cooperating with said spaced portions to prevent escape of said end from said head when said spaced portions are bent reversely into substantial parallelism with said depending portion.

WILLIAM H. THORPE.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 597,149 Knecht Jan. 11, 1898 772,800 G-rifiin Oct. 18, 1904 1,070,483 Kaufmann Aug. 19, 1913 1,893,288 Kaufmann Jan. 3, 1933 

